COPENHAGEN: Two more suspects have been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting during the Norwegian capital’s annual LGBTQ Pride festival, police said Monday. The total number of suspects is now four.
A 42-year-old Norwegian citizen originally from Iran was arrested shortly after the June shootings in Oslo’s nightlife district that killed two people and wounded more than 20. A second Norwegian man in his 40s is being sought, police said Friday.
On Monday, police said two more suspects — a man in his 40s with Somali citizenship and a Norwegian national in his 30s — were arrested Sunday. Both are known to the police, authorities said, adding that they are residents of Oslo.
They face preliminary charges of “complicity in an act of terrorism,” police said.
The suspect who has not yet been detained, Arfan Bhatti, is believed to be in Pakistan. Norwegian police said that, “to ensure the best possible cooperation with the Pakistani authorities, we had officials from the Oslo police district in Pakistan a short time ago. ”
Bhatti allegedly posted online statements about killing gay people. Media reports said he knew Zaniar Matapour, the main suspect in the June 25 attack that the Norwegian Police Security Service has called an “Islamist terror act.”
Matapour who according to Norwegian media arrived in Norway with his family from a Kurdish part of Iran in the 1990s faces preliminary charges of murder and attempted murder.
The names of the suspects arrested on Sunday were not given.